I Need an Asprin and Some 23rd Psalm

After a good and productive week, shouldn't I go into the weekend with a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction? Then why do I feel like I've been dragged through the mud by a team of wild horses only to want to crawl into a hole and hide away from the world. My guess is that it has something to do with life. Jesus said that He came to give us life and to give it more abundantly. Good life? No, just life - warts and all. Sometimes life is bad and nothing seems to be going your way. Sometimes life is great and you feel you're on top of things. More often than not, I suppose, life is somewhere in the middle where good and bad mingle together. This week I check several things off of the to-do list, saw plans come together, and made positive strides on others. But I'm tired and emotionally drained. My spiritual battery is near zero and the resulting emptiness only adds to my overall sense of burnout. Burnout, that's a word we don't like to use in ministry. We're suppose to be supermen and women who put in 16-18 hour days 6-7 days a week for 52 strait weeks without a break. That's a lie by the way. You know who started it? Narcissistic ministers who truly believe they are important and who equate being a workaholic with faithfulness. Here's my advice, get over yourself. If Jesus was smart enough to take rest during His earthly ministry, so should we. David spelled out what that rest is like in the 23rd Psalm and I am encouraged by it and seek it for myself. Praise to our God who gives rest to the weary.



The Lord is my shepherd, (To You, O LORD, I lift up my soul.)
I shall not want. (O my God, in You I trust)
He makes me lie down in green pastures; (Make me know Your ways, O LORD)
He leads me beside quite waters. (Teach me Your paths)
He restores my soul; (Pardon my iniquity, for it is great)
He guides me in paths of righteousness (Lead me in Your truth and teach me)
For His name's sake. (For You are the God of my salvation)

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, (For I am lonely and afflicted)
I fear no evil, for You are with me; (My eyes are continually toward to LORD)
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. (Good and upright is the LORD)
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies: (For He will pluck my feet out of the net)
You have anointed my head with oil; (Do not let me be ashamed)
My cup overflows. (Let integrity and uprightness preserve me)
Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, (All the paths of the LORD are lovingkindness and truth)
And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. (For You I will wait all the day)